Most of us are lucky enough to have warming nostalgia for our childhoods, remembering carefree days with our families.

My own memories are always a bit of a jumble though.

I remember snippets of being at our home in the Middle East, mostly of running around on hot, hot sand, everything with a golden glow.

I also remember visiting my aunt and uncle in Llantwit Major, and spending a day at Barry Island with their daughters.

And then my memories become more fantastical. I clearly recall going on a journey to the moon with a witch and a cat in a spaceship that made a ‘put put put’ sound.

There was a skeleton living on a dark, dark street in a dark, dark house, and three siblings who found magical lands at the top of a tree behind their house, and a literate spider who saved a pig and taught him about life and loss.

Don’t worry, I haven’t lost my marbles.

I’m just sharing the memories that I’ve been party to thanks to growing up reading books.

If you haven’t read Meg On The Moon, Funnybones, The Magic Faraway Tree or Charlotte’s Web, don’t fret.

There will be plenty of characters which you yourself remember with fondness as the friends who shaped your childhood.

That’s why we’ve dedicated this edition of this magazine to a books special.

Next week sees the inaugural Cardiff Children’s Lit Fest take place, and I’m so excited about it.

As journalists, we all have a passion for the written word, and like any evangelist, spreading the message is something that thrills us, so we hope you enjoy it too.

I’ve always been wrapped up in books, and as an adult, it’s still something that gladdens my heart.

The wonder that children feel when faced with stories of otherworldly excitement shapes their world view and helps them grow into adults with empathy, intelligence and, most importantly for me, imagination.

The best thing about books is that fostering a love of them as children stays with us until adulthood.

I grew up in a house where reading was encouraged, and trips to the library were family outings, which meant that I got excited about diving into new worlds, worlds that started out as alien to me and wound up being more familiar than my own bedroom.

Growing up friends with Darrell Rivers in Mallory Towers made me wish my parents would send me to boarding school because they all seemed to have such a jolly fun time.

Tackling racism with Scout Finch in To Kill A Mockingbird gave me a stronger sense of social justice, while going on a rail trip with Holden Caulfield in Catcher In The Rye was the perfect complement to my own teenage angst.

As time goes on, books mean different things – and there’s a danger that children can come to see reading as something that school forces upon them.

But as long as they see it as something fun, something rewarding that will give them joy, it’s a massive part of shaping them as people.

I don’t read for pleasure every single day.

Who has the time? If you do, you’re very lucky. But when I have a spare half hour, I like to sit in some quiet place with the newest set of misfits in an Anne Tyler novel, or perhaps a gritty pathology case with Kathy Reichs.

When the mood takes me, I’m happy to delve into the classics – I never tire of re-reading Wuthering Heights, and a recent flirtation with The Great Gatsby was as transformative as an evening at a party with Jay and Daisy themselves drinking mint juleps.

But the whole overarching reason for reading is pleasure, something which takes me away from it all.

As far as escapism goes, it’s so much more transporting than film for me, because the action happens in my head.

If you’ve been looking at a box of books you read as a child, packaged up and ready to send to the charity shop, do yourself a favour – take a look at them again.

Because reconnecting with those old friends is the one of the loveliest ways to pass your time, and remind you of what it was like to be excited by reading.

And the best bit is, that’s not something you have to be nostalgic for, because there’s no end of fantastic authors out there right now creating new worlds for you to explore.

So what are you waiting for? Open up a book – and, of course, this magazine – and explore.